Business Digest

JUNEAU - Alaskan Brewing Co. won three medals at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival on Saturday in Denver, maintaining its status as the craft brewery that's won the most awards at the beer festival.

Alaskan Smoked Porter won a silver medal in the smoke-flavored beer category and a bronze in the aged beer category for the 2004 vintage. Alaskan Stout took home a bronze in the Oatmeal Stout category.

The company has won a total of 16 awards over the years at the festival, according to a statement released by the company.

About 2,800 beers entered the competition.

A limited amount of Alaskan Smoked Porter is made each year. Some yeast is left in the beer, allowing the beer to condition in the bottle, with the smoke acting as a preservative. Alaskan Brewing has an extensive library of vintage Smoked Porter, which was first brewed in 1988.

Alaskan Smoked Porter is often credited with reviving the rauchbier style, or "smoke beer," in the United States. The malt for this beer is smoked over alder wood, a hardwood indigenous to Southeast Alaska that is often used to smoke fish. That combination was the result of a partnership between Alaskan Brewing and Taku Smokeries, a fish smokehouse that was then located across the street from the brewery.

University sponsors online competition

JUNEAU - The University of Alaska Southeast School of Management is sponsoring the second annual Fall 2007 Online Alaska Business Plan Competition.

The competition is open to any Alaska resident who is enrolled as a student at UAS. The competition invites entries from entrepreneurs who want to present their ideas and try to attain funding and support for their proposed business.

The ideas submitted must be original and must be formatted into a business plan. The business must plan to be headquartered in Alaska.

Anyone interested in participating as either an entrepreneur, judge or sponsor should contact Rick Wolk at the University of Alaska Southeast by e-mail at rick.wolk@uas.alaska.edu or call 796-6133. The deadline for submission of business plans is Nov. 30.

Small business center offers financing class

JUNEAU - The Juneau Small Business Development Center will offer an evening class, "Financing Your Business," from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in the third floor conference room of the Juneau Empire building, 3100 Channel Drive.

The seminar will provide information on sources of financing for small business, and is appropriate for businesses at any level, from the start-up phase to planning an expansion.

"Participants will come away with clear ideas on whether grants, bank loans, loan guarantee programs or investors are appropriate for their business," center Director Jackie Stewart said. Steps to take to get the funding will also be covered.

Pre-registration is requested. Cost is $25, but scholarships are available for low-income participants. For more information, call the Juneau Small Business Development Center at 463-3789.

Hot springs energy could fuel North Slope

FAIRBANKS - A federally funded geothermal technology experiment is poised to take renewable energy into the heart of Alaska's oil fields.

Chena Hot Springs Resort makes electricity from its heated subterranean waters and wants to use the technology to power North Slope oil wells. The resort developed the technology last year with Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp.

A $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy will help Chena Power, a subsidiary of the resort, pay for a demonstration project to harness the energy of hot water that wells up from the ground with crude oil.

The $724,000 grant is being matched by Chena Power and United Technologies Corp., for a total of $1.45 million, according to a news release from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.